I wonder, if one got a relatively high-powered Android phone, if one could run a conventional Linux distro in a persistent VM and ssh and VNC to it and stuff. Like Crouton for Android or something
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Pixel 6 has usable hardware virtualization support, although you would need an OS making use of it for this.
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Thanks. Someone else mentioned chroot jails-- are there out-of-box solutions for just running a little linux environment / wifi sshd on a stock Android kernel?
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Does Termux count? Although it is getting less OOTB with the forthcoming removal from the Play store :(
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They could have kept it on the Play Store if they moved to distributing packages as apps. It's against Play Store policy for apps to download and run code from other sources themselves, and there are security features for recent API levels phasing out native code exec from data.
Termux is stuck at an old API level due to relying on executing native code from app data. Over time, it will increasingly be missing new features and will fall further and further behind in terms of the latest API level changes which are often privacy and security improvements.
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It will end up having a warning when first launched due to the old API level, which may eventually become a warning with each launch of the app. It may end up with a warning when installing it too. They could entirely avoid all of this by distributing code as apks though.
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How do web browsers deal with the restrictions? Does JavaScript not count, just native code?
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There's an exception for meaningfully sandboxed code. It permits web browsers. It doesn't permit a web browser with a deliberate way to give the dynamically downloaded JavaScript code execution as the app itself.
In the future the policy may specifically require isolatedProcess.
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